Modern twist to tradition

When they met at The Club recently, the ladies of the Flower and Garden Group of Abu Dhabi were enthralled by a demonstration of Ikebana – Japanese flower arranging.

Fujiko Zarouni, who uses the teaching name Biyo, is a teacher with the Sogetsu School in Dubai, and an exponent of the theories of Sofu Teshigahara.

Described as the Picasso of Ikebana, Sofu took the art of flower arranging in unprecedented directions encouraging students to be creative and develop their own ideas.

As Biyo puts it, "Traditional Ikebana taught that there was only one correct way to carry out arrangement. If there were one hundred students in a class, they would all have to produce exactly the same arrangement. Now a teacher would encourage pupils to one hundred different interpretations."

During her demonstration, Biyo and her assistants used a variety of containers, ranging from the very modern cast iron sculptures to recycled lunch boxes, to show the ladies how the three different traditional elements of Ikebana – line, mass and colour – could be retained while using freer, more modern arrangements.